You've started your business and now it's time to promote your product or service. Although it seems easy enough to post a few social media posts or send out a few promotional emails. You need to create a marketing plan.
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a strategic roadmap for how you will communicate (online and offline) with your target audience in order to successfully market your product or service. Marketing plans range from very simple to very detailed, depending on what you want to achieve.
According to ArcheMedX Marketing Director Molly Maple Bryant, a marketing plan is more than just a list of things you want to accomplish. Instead, it should list the results you're looking for that are measurable and contextual, such as flows you've designed or leads you've generated, and outline the high-level strategy you'll use to achieve them. . Results. Developing a strategy can be difficult, but it helps you stay on track and avoid distractions, also known as "space crawling".
"Once you've agreed on a plan, you can compare each request that comes in to your strategy to decide, 'Yes, that fits my strategy, so we can add it' or 'No, that sounds good in theory. ". , but it doesn't seem to work.' see it all the way.. "to the strategy we've agreed to, so we're not going to adjust resources," Bryant told business.com.
Types of Marketing Plans
There are several types of marketing plans you can use depending on the specific strategy that suits your organization. Your business may need a combination of the following marketing plans to create an effective and comprehensive marketing strategy:
- Advertising plan
- Brand plan
- Content Marketing Plan
- Customer Purchase Plan
- Direct marketing plan
- Email Marketing Plan
- Public relations program
- Printed marketing plan
- reputation management
- Storage plan
- Search engine optimization plan
- Social Media Marketing Plan
Depending on your product niche, you may also need a marketing plan such as influencer marketing or video marketing.
Why is it important for your business to have a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is an essential resource for any small business. Basically, it helps you identify what market needs your product or service meets, how your product differs from the competition, and who your product or service is aimed at. The marketing plan also serves as a roadmap for your sales strategy, brand direction, and overall business development. This is key to successfully conveying your brand message to your target audience.
Another huge benefit of having a marketing plan for your business is that instead of guessing numbers, it forces you to sit down and calculate your business goals and make them realistic. When you see the results of your growth, you can dig deeper to figure out what it took to get to that number.
Bryant gives the following example. “Requires income of $100,000. How many sales does this represent? If it's 10, what's your approximate interest rate? Let's say 10% leads to a closed trade. Now that you have the metrics to start with, to get 10 sales, we need 100 leads. Where does this come from and what strategy would you use? The plan will help you put everything on paper so you can define resources and tactics later with a lot of preparation and realism," Bryant said.
By analyzing results and resources, you can save time and avoid fear by focusing only on strategies that fit your marketing plan. A marketing plan will not only help you think through your strategy, but it will also keep all of your stakeholders on the same page and your marketing team accountable for their decisions.
“When all objectives and goals are set for stakeholders and partners in the business, it is easier for the whole team to feel comfortable achieving sales goals and it gives the team marketing the space and freedom she needs to perform work without constant supervision,” says Cassidy. Deal, digital marketing consultant and owner of Ethos agency.
Additionally, says Diehl, a marketing plan should be easy to understand for your entire team, managers and outside departments, as well as a simple guide for marketers and future team members to understand and implement. work.
5 Elements of an Effective Business Marketing Plan
The marketing plan should be tailored to your business. However, Deal states that all marketing plans contain five key characteristics:
- Your business goals
- Key indicators (how you measure and measure success)
- Strategy (examination of the implementation and the means to achieve the objective)
- Plan (implementation details and human resources involved, departments and software)
- Reports (how progress reports should look and/or look like)
We've divided these five features into 10 categories to help you create a unique and effective marketing plan for your business.
1. Resume
The executive summary is a great place to give readers of your plan an overview of your company's mission or goals, as well as the marketing strategies you want to implement. The executive summary is often written after the rest of the marketing plan is complete, so it includes all of the important elements of your plan. If the executive summary is the only part of your marketing plan that someone reads (which it probably will), you need to make sure they include the most important details.
2. Mission Statement
A mission statement, not to be confused with a vision statement, is a statement that includes your company's values and how those values align with your overall goals as an organization. Here are some good questions to get you thinking.
- What is your business doing today?
- What is important for your business?
- What does your company want to do in the future?
- What is your corporate identity?
- What is your culture?
- What value does your business bring to customers, employees and stakeholders?
3. Target market
Defining your target market is one of the most important parts of your marketing plan. Without a specific target audience, the money you spend on marketing will be wasted. Think this way. some need your service or product but don't know it yet. Who are these people?
Here are some additional questions to help you think about your target market:
- What are the demographics of your customers (gender, age, income, education, etc.)?
- What are their needs and interests?
- What is their psychological profile (relationships, philosophy, values, lifestyle, etc.)?
- How do they behave?
- What existing products do they use?
4. Products and services
Don't just list your product or service in this section. Think critically about what you offer your customers and what that value proposition means to them.
- What do you do or offer to customers?
- What are your customer's needs?
- How does your product or service meet customer needs?
- What value do you add to the lives of your customers?
- What types of goods or services do you offer?
5. Sales channels
At this point in your report, you should focus your thoughts on actual marketing theory and practice. Distribution channels are the channels you will use to reach potential customers or businesses. Think about all the current and potential sales channels that your specific target audience will be involved in. A distribution channel that works well for one organization may not work for another. For example, one business might host their site for free on a site like HubSpot and use it purely as a sales funnel, while another might have an entire team using Pinterest to generate sales. [Learn how a CRM system can help you track your marketing leads across multiple distribution channels.]
Here are some examples of sales channels:
- Website
- retailer
- Mobile SMS Marketing
- Social networks
- Al
- retailer
- Printed matter (newspapers, magazines, brochures, catalogs, direct mail)
- Broadcasting (television, radio)
- press conference
- Exhibitions, product demonstrations, event marketing
6. Competitive profile
One of the key aspects of your marketing plan is to develop your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A USP is a feature or position that sets your product or service apart from those offered by competitors. It's about differentiating and differentiating your business as an individual business with one type of product or service. Perform a competitive analysis to find out your competitive profile and how you stack up against your competitors. When carrying out such an analysis, it is important to remain impartial.
Here are some ideas to consider:
- What is your USP?
- Who are your competitors ? What do they offer?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?
- What market (or customer) needs are not being met? What can you do to meet these needs?
7. Pricing strategy
Pricing is something to consider when creating a marketing plan. Developing the right pricing strategy will help you sell your products better. You want to consider your current and projected finances when developing a realistic and profitable long-term marketing strategy for your business. Here are some key questions to ask yourself about pricing:
- What is the reasonable margin to make a profit and cover production costs?
- Is there a market for the product or service at your expected price?
- Are you willing to sacrifice your profits to increase your market share?
- What are your marketing and distribution costs?
8. Objective
Keep your goals in mind when developing your marketing plan. This aspect of your plan should include specific goals related to market penetration and revenue goals. Make sure your marketing goals are aligned with your business. Here are some things to consider:
- Sales quota
- Number of new customers attracted
- Customer retention rate
- income goals
- break the market
- Brand recognition
- Website traffic
9. Action plan
With all of the above in mind, decide on the steps to complete your marketing plan. This includes setting the right pace, setting goals, sharing responsibilities, and establishing a shared schedule.
It is also important to think about possible obstacles for your business and some solutions to overcome them. Your research is useless if you don't have a realistic action plan to implement your ideas.
10. Financial forecasts
This last step allows you to create a realistic marketing budget and get a better idea of what your marketing plan will look like in terms of costs. In addition to setting a budget, consider your overall return on investment. Here are some other financial projections to consider:
- Implementation costs
- The cost of producing a product or service
- actual and projected cash flows
- Sales Rating
- Desired profit margin on projected sales
Template for creating a successful marketing plan
The web is full of useful tools, including paid and free marketing plan templates, to help you create a successful marketing plan.
Whether you're looking for a free template builder to create a new marketing plan, a benchmarking tool to evaluate your current strategy, or a video tutorial to learn more about marketing plans, there are great resources out there. Remember that the best marketing plan for your business will be individual.
"Ultimately, you need to design the marketing program that best fits your team's needs," says Diehl. "Don't push yourself into a plan that isn't right for your team. Use templates to reduce download time, then set up a more personalized plan."
Marketing Plan Template
- Free marketing plan template. Business.com has developed free templates that can be fully customized to suit your business needs. Each section contains step-by-step explanations, examples, and resources to help you create impressive marketing plans.
Marketing plan video tutorials
- Little guide. If you're a visual learner, watch one of the many online marketing plan video tutorials to get started. One of our favorites is this quick guide from marketing guru Neil Patel. He teaches his six-step marketing plan in six minutes.
- Longer tutorial for beginners. If you're new to marketing plans or want to share a bit more formal (and longer) video with your marketing team, there are other video tutorials on YouTube.
Comparison tools and templates
- Clever sense. In addition to marketing plan templates, some companies, such as Smart Insights, offer marketing metrics templates to help you measure the effectiveness of your strategy. Comes with a free subscription to Smart Insights.
- GERU. Similarly, GERU offers pipeline planning, profit forecasting, and simulation tools to help you evaluate business idea models and simulations. This can help you identify weak areas in your marketing strategy that need improvement. Although GERU requires users to create a paid account, you can use a free trial to try it out.
How to start your new marketing plan
Before diving into marketing plan templates, it's important to understand how to think about a marketing plan.
A good marketing plan focuses on who your customers are, defines the services or products you offer, and defines your unique selling proposition. From there, you'll go through the marketing planning process and determine how best to present your product or service to potential buyers.
Dill has developed a simple four-step process for creating a small business marketing plan.
- The first step is to organize a marketing meeting with the entire marketing team and the leaders or stakeholders. This gives them time to ask questions, concerns, and criticisms you haven't thought of so you can go back to the conference room and reevaluate your strategy or plan.
- Next, add a timeline for all your tasks and assign team members and any help you need to complete the plan.
- Once your plan is ready, do weekly check-ins in person or via email to keep everyone informed.
- Share weekly progress reports with all stakeholders and managers to ensure you're on track.
In addition to creating your own plan, you can work with a digital marketing agency or use pay-per-click marketing and web management services to grow your online presence.
Once you've created a shared roadmap, update it annually. Developing a thriving marketing plan sets your business up for continued success. it allows you to prepare for the unexpected and create a connection between your brand and your audience.
Matt D'Angelo contributed to an earlier version of this article.
